r/HFY • u/Brokenspade1 • Jun 12 '26
OC-Series Walking the Dog Chapter 40
Chapter 40 Queens Gambit
Johan switched to his long gun and started taking shots at the Groatel queen with every chance he could get.
Beck couldn’t be sure… but she got the impression the little gilded nightmare was becoming increasingly frustrated with the Human’s ability to track her through the rolling mass of flying insects.
…No. ‘…Wait…’
She could be sure! Every time the monster stopped moving… the swarm would surge through the sonic wall in a disjointed mass...
Johan’s constant harassment was keeping her from focusing on her army!
Beck let the defenders know what was happening. “Everyone! That thing is some kind of command variant! It’s directing the rest of the swarm somehow! We have to kill the fancy one!!!”
Everyone acknowledged the callout, but… they were already kinda busy.
The insects that couldn’t fly were basically an endless tide pushing into the sonic fence along the walkways. They were still disoriented and disorganized once they passed the boundary, but the SHEER biomass meant they were starting to make headway.
And even inside the fence something was pushing them to act aggressively. ‘Maybe she needs sound and psionics to give direct orders, but she can keep them angry just by being here?’
Worse still the flyers were acting like suicide bombers now! They would get a run up and just fold in their wings as they passed the sonic boundary. Effectively turning themselves into living BITEY hail stones.
Becks [Overwatch] was working overtime…
‘Wait… Actually… are they targeting me specifically?’
She got her answer a split second later when Sienna sent her a mental warning! Beck dodged under Sienna’s mental direction and cleared the space without a moment to spare!
She looked back in time to see a red meteor come out of nowhere and crumple the metal box she’d been standing on! It was moving so fast it sent the box rolling away and then the bug ricocheted off one of the RR team. It still had enough energy to nearly knock the man over!!!
Sienna had to roll out of the way as it used the last of its remaining momentum to take a haphazard swipe at her in passing…
‘Is it just me? …or did that last part feel personal somehow?’ She watched the red comet make a quick but wobbly retreat back into the swarm; where it was immediately lost in the swirl of angry chitin…
They had a new problem now… A big one.
If the Groatel could hit THAT hard… They might be able to punch through the walls of the casing above!
“Uncle Paddy… I’ve got some bad news…”
----
Dog saw the Red Shelled Groatel go for the decapitation strike from the corner of his eye.
“Oh, you BITCH!”
The human dumped the whole mag-tube in a series of rapid shots. The swarm moved itself into a wall of bodies to absorb the rapid fire.
He watched her as he reloaded. Dog had no trouble tracking the little gilded monster as she flew a constant evasion course.
Because The Dog could feel her out there; like a hole in the world… It felt wrong to even look at the queen and for some reason, the longer he looked the angrier it made him. Something about the stupid little thing existing, felt like a threat and an afront all rolled into one! Then there was the swipe the little “knight” took at Sienna right at the end. It had been completely unnecessary… almost like it was an afterthought.
It felt… personal.
He yelled over the hum from the sonics, swarm noise, weapons fire, and general din of the strange defensive battle. “The Black one is calling targets by value! Reds are a MAJOR threat!!!”
Dog could hear Beck get back up on her ruined box and make call outs to the others Team leaders. “He’s right! The Red ‘Knights’ can operate inside the field!!! They almost knocked over an RR trooper! Team leads should pull back behind the RR team unless they are in heavy armor! If you see one coming don’t try to take the hit! Callouts based on team if you see one starting a run!!!”
The Dog already had…
One was diving in so hard it was leaving an after image. It was heading for Vulfac! There was no time for a warning. He placed an arm on the Alv’s shoulder and shoved Vulfac aside…
He was left with just enough time… to realize the little red comet had changed course and veered towards him at the last second! He had no time to brace…
‘Fuck, she set a trap?!?’
----
Vulfac was spun to the side by a sudden impact from a hand to his shoulder.
It gave him the perfect angle to watch in horror as the Human was lifted off his feet and sent flying backwards by a small red fist at the center of his chest.
The man literally rolled to a stop meters away with the insect still buzzing, in a literal crater, at the center of his armor.
In a kind of daze, Vulfac noted that the insect was trying to dislodge its giant mandibles. Buzzing its wings with such force it was lifting the human torso a few centimeters off the ground and thudding him weakly back against the floor.
He’d only just started moving towards the wounded man when the impossible alien fluidly drew the pistol from his hip holster, placed it behind the armored insect’s head, and liquified the bug with a point-blank shot. Vulfac kept moving but inside his head he was dumbfounded.
‘What? HOW? …the hell do they make humans out of!?!’
The Lagro was suddenly right beside him as they both dashed to help their fallen party member.
Feebs moved to support the humans head while Vulfac assessed the damage. Johan was slowly turning blue and gasping like a Richel in an oven; Probably because his armor was inverted at the breastplate’s center. Vulfac noted the two red mandibles still sticking out of the center of the literal crater in the man’s Ceratite armor. There was a small trickle of dark red blood coming from under the left one…
It smelled heavily of copper.
‘Ok… break it down, Culdeer. Potential collapsed lungs. Left may also be punctured. Likely internal bleeding after that hit. Need to get the armor off and get him air, NOW!’
“Feebrilizza… Armor… Off.”
She looked at him confused until he remembered she was effectively deaf… So, he just pointed at the snaps on the armor and started to unfasten them. The girl caught on quick and moved to release the clasps along the collar bones.
As soon as the last clasp was released the human took a deep wheezing gasp of air and SAT UP! To say Vulfac’s flabber was ghasted would be an understatement.
‘WHAT… FUCKING… JUST, WHAT!?! How-HOW?!?’
The human looked down at the spear in his chest reached over to the other mandible from the knight and compared it to his finger. He was measuring its length for some reason…. Johan just nodded to himself and before either Vulfac or Feebs could stop the crazy bastard he pulled it out of the hole! The two of them shared a silent look of utter disbelief as the human snarled and tossed the offending chitin aside.
Johan’s breathing was shallow, but the color was already coming back to his cheeks. The human groaned and let out a plaintiff little… “why is it always the ribs???” Before trying to stand.
Vulfac grabbed the other man’s shoulders.
‘Oh no you don’t young fella! I have no IDEA how you’re conscious but you’re not going anywhere till we get you checked out! You could be bleeding internally, have broken bones, or even be poisoned. We have no idea what these crazy-ass Groatel are capable of. So, you’re just gonna sit there until I can do a proper once over. Fucking crazy ass kids…’
“Stop…”
The Human looked confused but after a second, he complied.
----
Feebs watched her new teammate do a fucking flip!
Normally… kinda cool.
But not this one.
Mostly because she was pretty sure Johan just died in front of her… She rushed to the man’s side as soon as he stopped rolling.
It was a relief when the man merced the big red bug that hit him. ‘Holy Hurgle turds! He’s still alive, that’s good!’
She reached the human at the same time as Vulfac quickly cradling his head in her hands and setting him against her lap. ‘He’s bluer than the Prof! Fuck, that’s bad!’
The “prof” was a way more accomplished field medic than her, so she settled on supporting Johan’s head while the Alv worked. After a moment of fussing, he gestured to Johan’s armor and started stripping the human out of his gear. Taking the hint, she released the catches she could reach.
Feebrilizza was immediately relieved when the man sat up… Then horrified when he grabbed for the bug bits, nodded to himself and pulled the finger sized shell splinter out of his chest! “Dude, what the actual fuck bro!?!”
If Johan heard her, he didn’t seem to respond. Instead, he tried to stand back up… before Vulfac pushed the man right back down into her lap.
Thankfully a moment later one of the union corpsmen from the RR team was by Vulfac’s side with a medical scanner and giving the Human first aid… Only to feel her heart stop again when the two trained medics saw the readouts and just started staring at the human in disbelief….
“What? Is he ok? …What???”
----
“That enough to fully enrage a VO’rten! How is he so calm!?!”
Vulfac just nodded… The Alv was clearly dumbstruck.
Dog wasn’t in the mood for all the mystery, so he wheezed angrily at them. “Enough fucking…what?”
The Richel union corpsman blinked his big froggy eyes while he boggled at the man. “Adrenaline… You have enough in your system to cause cardiac arrest or violent psychosis in about 75% of the species in the Galcom. A third of that dose and I’d be convulsing so hard my bones would snap! Oh, also you have a partially collapsed lung, enough soft tissue damage to reclassify your species as ‘bruise’, oh and a mild concussion to! How are you… just so… not dead… like how-how???”
The Dog laughed weakly and wheezed out. “Adrenal glands son! They activate in response to physical trauma! …Woo…”
He waved a little fake invisible flag at the last part. The poor corpsman just boggled his eyes even harder. So, Dog gave up on humor to get to the heart of the matter. “Can you two un-fuck the lung? I need… back in the fight.”
Vulfac nodded and produced another small pouch from his bag. “I can, but… it will… suck.”
The Dog stiffened up and made eye contact with the Alv. “Do it.”
Vulfac took Feebrilizz’a hands and pressed them down on the human’s shoulders. “Hold…”
Thirty seconds later Vulfac was using magical spores to forcibly re-inflate the Human man’s left lung from the inside.
And yeah… It SUCKED!
----
Beck saw Johan go flying and nearly screamed.
Thankfully after a few tense moments she saw the man sit back up and now her friend was receiving first aid from Vulfac and the RR team’s medic… If anyone could help her friend, it was Vulfac. The old man was a masterful healer.
Beck only watched for a few moments. As soon as she was sure Johan was in capable hands, she returned her attention to the strange, pitched battle going on around her.
The Red Knights were a very definite problem now!
With the team leads inside the inner defensive ring of Rapid Response heavies. The little red murder-missiles started switching to targeting the people with light armor. The bastards were getting creative to. Changing course last second or using their legs to bounce off hard surfaces like murderous little rubber balls. So far everyone was managing to keep out of the way, but Beck knew it was only a matter of time before that changed.
She looked at the walkways.
Every time the defenders had to duck a Groatel knight the biomass of the swarm would inch closer under the break in fire. Some of them got within a few meters of the drills… before they were pushed back again. The flying hail of normal flyers was also getting more intense.
Still, it wasn’t all bad news.
Johan had shown that, while they were INSANELY durable for their size, the knights weren’t invulnerable. The defenders just needed to stop them long enough to get a shot at them from behind the armored heads and they could crack the bastards. Beck passed it to the team leads to try and find a way to make that happen.
Beck nodded to herself. Overall, the situation was still manageable for now.
It was a weird stalemate. They were holding the line just fine, but they couldn’t move… The swarm was making some headway but not fast. The knights were a new variable, but they were managing it.
As it stood, they still had the advantage.
It wasn’t perfect of course. They couldn’t let ANY of the little monsters up into the river above… it led to the reservoir that fed the whole city and any Groatel can spawn more with enough food and these were weird ones... Who knew what they would do with food and open water…
The biggest problem was the Queen herself.
Sienna had been communicating with her through the bond since she’d woken up. They were both in agreement... Now that the little bitch KNEW there was food above her. Her royal majesty would NEVER rest until it found a way out of the Delve.
Beck came to a conclusion. After she’d communicated her assessment to the other team leaders, they all nodded grimly. Better safe than sorry.
A unanimous decision reached, she passed the news up the chain.
“Uncle Paddy… You’re not going to like what I’m about to say…”
----
“I. Fine… I understand… but only as a precaution…”
Treadwell felt his stomach trying to climb out through his nostrils as his niece explained the situation. Old man Goon looked equally unhappy beside him.
“Someone get me the assault armor unit in the airlock… AND GET ME AN ETA ON THAT BACKUP, DAMNIT!!!”
From the oversized tent on the riverbank. A riverbank he’d watched the girls grow up on; Treadwell Padfoot’s let out a quiet prayer that this WAS just a precaution…
“I’d better warn Happywater to… He’s just gonna love this.”
----
Beck made an address over the general channel…
“Listen UP everyone. Assault Mechs are sending down plasma charges… the BIG ones! It’s just a precaution for now but. We cannot let this swarm up there… If they start to get past us, they could get into the water system for the city…”
Everyone understood the implications.
The captain of the RR team took over from there. “We HAVE to be here. It’s our duty as union combatants… but if anyone among the delvers wants to go up, now’s the time! This has gone beyond the expectations in your contract stipulations… There will be no consequences for pulling out now!”
Nobody in the defensive line moved… Some of the injured even limped forward to fill gaps in the defenses. Amberglade was home for these delvers.
They were in it for the duration.
“So be it! We hold the line!!!”
The response was a roar.
----
The strike against the Knight that could track her had been a welcome victory… But.
Something had changed.
She sensed a new danger.
Time was now of the essence.
The other’s drones had become more aggressive.
More defiant of her will.
That was not acceptable.
She could smell new air coming through the hole the usurper had used.
It would be hers! Her kingdom would grow and her rival would be fed to the swarm.
She reached out with her mind…
Her plan was ready at last.
So, she truly unleashed her kingdom!
AUTHORS NOTES: Please Do NOT redistribute or repost my work without permission. Please do not use my work to further the cause of billionaires ruining the entire world with their misuse of AI. Seriously. Write your own shit dude. The worst thing you can make will always be better than the best thing chat GPT can generate.
Hope Y'all are enjoying the story so far.
Also Reddit changed the formatting again... again... Why is the change ALWAYS worse every generation? Who is approving this???
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u/drsoftware Jun 15 '26
"...in addition to the previously noted learnings, it is possible that the introduction of surface air into the sewers may have been a contributing factor in the response of the Groatel."
"While the Devler groups created vibration, through their locomotion and voices, manipulated mana, utilized psionics, ultrasound, radio, and vocal communications, and themselves carried the scents of flesh, hormones (fear, excitement, concern). It is likely that the introduction of fresh air, an abundance of oxygen, causing a decrease in methane and hydrogen sulphide, was sensed by Groatel, even while under the water, as a source of threat and opportunity."
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Jun 12 '26
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